Pointed Spat Over World Trade Spire

Developer's Plan to Alter Top of New Tower Arouses Architects' Ire

By

Eliot Brown

Updated May 10, 2012 2:52 p.m. ET

As construction of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan moves toward completion, the building's owners are sparring with their architects over what goes on top of the 104-story tower—a dispute that could stop the structure being recognized as America's tallest.

The owners, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and developer Douglas Durst, are intending to drop a plan to enclose the 408-foot antenna with an ornamental...